Seven Key Points: What we took away from Donegal's historic win over Kerry

4. Importance of squad depth and player rotation

The intensified pace of the game necessitates effective player rotation and a deep bench. 

The openness of the game now sees a larger increase in running across the board. As bodies tire, the key aspect will now be for players to be sprung from the bench at particular times to see the game home.

The withdrawal of Man of the Match Ryan McHugh on the hour mark perhaps raised a few eyebrows at the time, but McGuinness was quick to bring to attention the extra workload created in this new game.

"Ryan is as fit as you get and we still had to take him off in the last two matches, so that probably answers the question on its own," McGuinness said.

"The subs are going to be huge going forward. Jamie Brennan gave us a massive boost off the bench. He was present for kickouts, he kicked his scores too. Patrick McBrearty did that last week for us and did that today as well, and we're going to need that from all five of our subs if we're going to survive coming down the stretch but that still doesn't take into it the fatigue element or the injuries element.

"Someone might be doing really well inside but you have to make a change in the last 20 minutes due to fatigue, so it's tricky because there's a lot to think about on it."